EU pushes for international court case against North Korea

Geneva - The UN Security Council should refer North Korea to
the International Criminal Court in The Hague, several countries,
including EU states, demanded on Monday in Geneva.

UN investigators presented detailed evidence in March 2014 that the
Stalinist regime led by Kim Jong Un was directly responsible for
massive human rights violations, including crimes against humanity.

Citizens deemed unloyal to the ideology of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) have faced slave labour, torture, rape,
starvation and imprisonment.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in prison camps in the past
50 years, the report said.

At a debate at the UN Human Rights Council devoted to North Korea on
Monday, EU countries said in a joint statement "that the UN Security
Council should refer the situation in the DPRK to the International
Criminal Court".

Such a move has so far been blocked by China, which has veto power in
the Security Council and which is one of North Korea's few allies.
Several African countries are also opposed to a trial in The Hague
because they do not recognize the international court there.

North Korean envoy Ri Hung Sik charged in Geneva that last year's
report and Monday's debate were part of a US-led conspiracy.

The US and its allies were using the human rights issue "to eliminate
the ideology and social system of the DPRK throughout the annals and
centuries of its existence".

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